“It isn’t excluded that during Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Brussels deadline of signing Armenia-EU agreement will be clarified”
Serzh Sargsyan, president of the Republic of Armenia, will pay a visit to Brussels in near future. Receiving Christian Danielsson, Director General for Enlargement at the European Commission, recently Sargsyan stated that Armenia-EU political dialogue has considerably activated and cooperation in different fields has enlarged. And Christian Danielsson highlighted Armenian president’s anticipated visit to Brussels, which, in his conviction, will pass on new impetus to cooperation development. As it’s known, Armenia-EU negotiations are at their final stage and 1-2 negotiation phases will be necessary for finalization. However, it isn’t yet known when the parties will sign the framework agreement.
Konrad Zasztowt, political analyst at Polish Institute of International Relations (Warsaw), told “168 Hours” this visit will become a crucial political impulse for the European Union, as supposedly Armenian president will reconfirm readiness of the Armenian authorities to sign the agreement, to deepen ties with the EU. Besides, in his words, EU’s financial assistance in Armenia’s electoral processes, Armenia-EU cooperation in fight against corruption will be touched upon.
“This is a traditional procedure, when negotiations are finalized, negotiators do their work, the parties through official visits reconfirm their devotedness to the process, i.e. negotiations are strengthening by top officials. This means, negotiations basically have been finalized, or main decisions have been made, a vivid proof of which was visit of Danielsson to Armenia together with the European negotiator.
I don’t exclude that during this visit exact deadline of signing the agreement will be clarified,” Zasztowt said.
The latter believes, that however, the parties won’t manage to ratify the agreement prior to pre-election campaign, although there is an impression, that neither the EU nor Armenia have intention to prolong the processes. According to Polish analyst the parties learned lessons from previous experience, thus, they should sign the agreement as soon as possible.
According to Zasztowt Armenian authorities may reconfirm they will to develop relations with the EU through fair elections as well, for which the EU allots Armenia around EUR 7 million.
“This isn’t accidental, although the EU constantly states, and it’s so, that it doesn’t interfere with Armenian domestic policy developments, but supports development of democratic processes. If that money doesn’t serve its purpose, the EU will have to review financial assistance provided to Armenia or totally review its liabilities toward Armenia. Thus, I’m sure during the forthcoming visit of Armenian president, EU officials will also have the opportunity to express their position on these issues,” Zasztowt said.
Armenia and the EU have negotiated around the framework agreement for almost four years—2009-2013, however, after the negotiations following the meeting with Russian president Putin 3 September 2013 Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan unexpectedly announced that Yerevan will sign the document on joining Russia-led EEU, which supposes withdrawal from concluding the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU.
After a two-year break 12 October 2015 the Foreign Affairs Council authorized the European Commission and the High Representative to open negotiations on a new, legally binding and overarching agreement with Armenia, and adopted the corresponding negotiating mandate. Negotiations were officially launched 7 December 2015. The new agreement will replace the current EU-Armenia Partnership and Cooperation agreement.
By Araks Martirosyan
